Chapter 7: Marisa the (Boring) Storyteller
I knew that Marisa was the only one who could help me. If she really cared for me, she would do anything, even remove this stink from me. I had just met her, but I still hoped she could help me. I kept running away from the hole, and not far after running away, I came to the cabin. But Pepe was still not far behind.
"I tell you bebe, I can do this for you! I love you!" He was hopping, closer and closer. I knew that I had to lock him out and hope for the best. So I ignored him, and opened the door, finding it was unlocked. I rushed inside, locked the door, and then locked the windows.
He can't get in now. There are no other entrances. Now I can just solve this problem.
I walked into the bedroom, only to find Marisa standing in front of the air conditioner. She turned around, and then she started to get confused.
"Penelope? Is that you? You stink! Literally, too! What happened?" At least she noticed my smell, unlike most people tonight. But I knew I had to answer her, I did not want to be thrown out into Pepe's arms.
"It happened again... That skunk... He came in, and then took me away! Then he sprayed me and now I stink like him!" I was panting from the exhaustion I suffered.
"What skunk? The one that likes your white stripe? And how did that get back on you? I rubbed it off, didn't I?" She started to show concern for my situation.
"The skunk is named Pepe Le Pew... He came from that area called France overseas, and he says he is trying to love me! Please... Is there any way for you to get this stripe off again?" I just wanted this stripe off so I could show that skunk that I am not a skunk, and then he would leave me alone.
"Wait a minute. I need to get something to remove your stink!" She stood up and entered the kitchen, and then came back with a big metal container.
"What is in that container?" I was a little curious on how I could remove the odor in that thing, but I decided to just wait and listen.
"This is a container of tomato juice... Since you are not a real skunk, the stink will go away with one bath in this." I stood up straight and walked to the container, seeing the red, gooey tomato juice inside of it.
This human food can be used as a stink-remover? Maybe I could use it on Pepe...
I jumped into it and then rested in the container. Marisa smiled as I noticed the odor was washing off, but broke my hopes of getting away from Pepe's odor.
"I know what you want. You want to use this on Pepe so he will not smell like garbage, do you? Well it will make his stink stronger. He is a skunk for crying out loud! He will always stink, and unless you eat him you can't remove his odor." Marisa started to giggle at the little joke she made.
I got tired of the tomato juice now that the stink was gone, so I got out of it as Marisa rushed to get another container. She brought the container to me as soon as I touched the carpet.
"Get in this one now, this will wash off the stripe and the tomato juice." I quickly got into the nice, cool water as soon as it was placed in front of me. I could feel the paint slip right off, meaning I no longer looked like a female skunk.
But one thing was on my mind: How did that get on me that time? I was sleeping in Marisa's bed and then when I woke up, I had a white stripe. There was nothing white in that room, meaning something else was going on...
But the room fell silent. A little too silent... Marisa had a worried expression on her face as I sat in the water.
"Get out. I think I know what happened..." I nodded to her instruction, and stepped out, and as soon as my paw touched the floor, Marisa gasped.
"See! Look at it! It came back!" I turned around and saw a new white stripe had appeared. I jumped into the water and jumped out. It was gone.
"Hold on, I got to get that research book my work gave me. I think it's the mirror!" She then walked to the air conditioner and opened it, and then crawled inside. She then came back out mere seconds later with a big book in her hand, that I was curious about.
"What is that book? Is that about that mirror I found?" Marisa silently gave a nod, her worried expression growing. I turned around to see if it came back, and it did. The skunk stripe was perfectly painted back on, without any sort of paint even touching the tail. As soon as I noticed, Marisa grabbed me and laid me on the pillow of the bed.
"Penelope... This may not be good news to you, and may even seem strange to you, seeing how I have only owned you for two days... But I think you are cursed." My heart sank. And as I started to become worried, Marisa continued.
"According to a research book I have gotten, the legend of the Mirror of Evol goes like this... Long ago, there was a tribe living far away in a kingdom. They made many wonderful relics, usually made to cure diseases or to bring happiness. But one day, a strange wizard came into the kingdom, and forced the tribe to make him a mirror that would help him find true love. But as the tribe tried to make a mirror, they couldn't find the materials needed to create the outer layer of the mirror. Only the glass could be found. Enraged, the wizard demanded that they use any kind of material to make the outer layer, as for him, all that he wanted in the mirror was the power he wanted to store in it. So the tribe gathered wood, metal, and many other simple materials to make the outer layer. The wizard was satisfied, so he made the outer layer, and created the Mirror." After Marisa told me that big chunk of story, I had one question to ask her.
"What about the hearts on the mirror?" If the mirror was created from a bad wizard, then why were there hearts on it? But Marisa gave me a glare instead of an answer. The glare that goes "I am not finished yet." I sighed as I sat back down.
"Anyway, after the mirror was created, he then used it for what he made it for. To actually help the tribe make better materials and to allow them to become wealthy. It seemed good for everyone, to the point that the tribe obeyed him, and loved him. Even more than the king of the kingdom. But jealous of the wizard, the king captured him to take him to his castle, where he suffered a cruel punishment...
This punishment caused the wizard to ask for one thing in his life before he would die, love. He missed the love the people gave him, and being lonely in the king's jail caused him to become angry at the king, to the point that he instantly killed the king as soon as he was about to be executed. Due to him using a power of magic, everything he did after that caused bad luck to him and the tribe, Which caused him to be thrown out of the kingdom.
Eventually, he passed away, never regaining the love he used to have from being nice to the tribe... This caused him to throw away the mirror, with his unfinished dreams inside of it. Due to the backwards nature of his desire, it was named the Mirror of Evol. Years later, someone had found the mirror, and recorded records of the strange powers of luck inside.
And one of those powers, is the power of bad luck." Marisa closed the book shut, meaning the legend was over, but I wasn't happy with it.
Oh please. One of those human fairy tales they always share. It's not like one mirror that had hearts on it will give me bad luck, will it?
Marisa knew I didn't care about the fairy tale, so she decided to show her worries to me the hard way.
"I can see your reaction to the story. You don't believe it, don't you? Well, I didn't really believe it either... But when I saw you with the mirror, I couldn't believe my eyes! Because of that, I wanted to obtain it for my research, but when you broke it under that ladder... I knew that you would be in for a lot of bad luck. Sure, it's only a legend, but the main point is is that mirror will give you a different kind of bad luck. And that bad luck is your white stripe." Marisa was firm in her theory, not wanting to not believe it.
I just yawned at her, which caused Marisa to be upset.
"You think that the white stripe is just a bad coincidence? Well, I will prove to you that it is not! You will see that all of that bad luck you gained is stuck unless you can find a way out of it." She then grabbed me and walked to the door. I started to get worried.
"What are you doing? What about the protection?" I was confused about what she was so mad about. But before I got an answer, she opened the door and threw me outside, slamming the door shut and locking it so I couldn't get back into the house. Through the window, she was staring at me, and with a soft voice, I heard her angry request.
"Go out now, and live with the rest of the skunks!"
Author's note: There is a lot of dialogue in here... I promise it won't happen as much as it did in here, with the story being told and all, but I will tell you one thing: Pepe is going to get some special chapters in here as well, so stay tuned!
